Their deeper question was, as Jesus-folowers, so what? Now that the Iraq War is over, what have we learned about where we live and who we are. And what should we do? The questions were not all answered — no surprise. If you want to get in on the ongoing discussion, follow their website: http://shalomhouse.us/

Our staff tends to adapt to what we need at a given time and to who is available to serve. We are glad Rachel was available and willing to change her life around to exercise her gifts for building our capacity to be an incarnation of Jesus. She’s still a Coordinator, a cell leader and attached to various teams and visions. Now she is taking on the role of focusing on the administrative side of what the pastors do, especially at Broad and Washington.

Her first two weeks have been consumed by figuring out how the office runs, how the computer works, and what all the machines do. Now she knows more about how the traffic of the week and the requirements of all our meetings and events need supervision. She has an idea about how money gets to the bank and provisons are purchased. She has an intercom, gchat, email and phone calls to keep her busy. It is quite a bit! When the President said he wanted to help small business people last night, that was us! Rachel’s up to her neck now in our business. Thanks Rachel!

I’m proud and excited to tell you that the newest member of our Leadership Team is Sara Semborski. She’ll be serving  a three-year term on Compassion Core team, joining Meg, Kate, Josiah, Jess, and Art! She’s 22 and is studying anthropology at Eastern University,  lives in Kensington, and works at Leotah’s Place. She has a Christ-like humility and a servant’s heart. Energy and passion overflow from her. Moreover, she’s able to lead others, and be led herself. She’s faithful, flexible, and positive! A strong woman who is jazzed about this opportunity. Please pray for Sara as she embarks on this journey, while continue to be an Art Director at 19G and one of our Cell Leaders, as well!

We held our second monthly Middle School Family Brunch this past Sunday, January 8^th.  We gathered at the Snyder’s home in South Philly, with 13 people in attendance.  Conversation and relationship building was had over a delicious meal, provided by the Snyder’s.  After the meal, we gathered in the living room to reflect over 2011, using story-telling and a team game, and then shared about our hopes and goals for 2012.  It was a very special time to be together.

Our next brunch will be held on Sunday, February 5^th in West Philly from 11:00a.m.-1:30p.m.  If you are interested in joining us, or know of any middle school kids who would be interested in coming, please e-mail me at nichole.b.jackson@gmail.com for more details.  We hope to keep supporting our middle school kids and their families, as we continue to meet together for a meal, fellowship, games, and conversation about what Jesus is doing in our lives.

I also wanted to bring attention to a BIC event for Middle School kids.  It is a conference called Jump Start on March 2^nd and 3^rd, and its vision statement is: “Jump Start exists to unite young followers and equip them for a journey of passionately transforming the world.”  If you would like more information on this conference, go to jumpstart.GoNextGen.org.

There was a lot going on in the meeting. We had an historical overview of the Israel/Palestine coexistence/conflict, instruction about illegal settlements, about the infamous separation barrier, about unequal access to resources, about house demolition,  about militarization.

We tried to keep it played out on a backdrop of hope, since the delegation met some of the most amazing people ever, in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories, who are keeping their hope and acting with peace in their hearts every day, with some remarkable results.

Hopefully, some people will comment who want to inform us about further resources and what MCC and others are doing to follow up on what we saw.

This first seminar’s topic was “A Year of Incarnational Evangelism.”  The main question that we were asking and trying to answer was, “How do we stay real?” or “How do we represent Jesus without being a stereotype?” The answers offered were by staying in community, engaging intentionally in conflict with each other with reconciliation and relationship growth in mind, and being a people of inclusion.  This year, we are committed to growing together to be an inclusive community, focusing on eternity now, modeling a way of living that testifies to Christ as Lord, and to aid in the transformation process of lives that moves towards wholeness.  These goals will be guiding the ways that we live, grow, and play together, with the hope of transforming our lives, and the lives of those around us, in the process.

What struck me the deepest was that “…success is faithfulness,” meaning that we are a people who are desperate to be like Christ, not a people who are desperate for results.  Let us be a community growing together in that kind of faithfulness with the expectation that God will meet us in our efforts!

Art Bucher for the Prison Connections Team writing

Thanks to everyone who participated in Angel Tree Christmas gift-giving to children with a parent in prison this year.  Here’s how a few of the gift deliveries went:

When I first telephoned Le, she sounded suspicious. There was a language barrier and I could tell we weren’t quite getting through to each other.  I asked her to wait while I went across the street to my Vietnamese neighbor, who agreed to hold the phone and translate. He explained about the Angel Tree gifts to her in Vietnamese, and reassured her.  She finally said “OK,” and told us what her three kids really needed.  We didn’t say much to each other when the gifts were delivered last week, but she did say, “Thank you” and “Merry Christmas!”

Another story:  When Karen’s door opened to my friend Joe Ryan and me last Friday, she looked very surprised. When we showed her the gifts and told her they were for her two small children from their dad, she immediately clasped her hands over her face and burst into tears.  She kept saying “Thank you,” and then told us “I had surgery today.”  The children, a girl and a boy, smiled and said, “They’re from daddy!”

At another home, a teenage girl heard us at the door talking to her mom and saw us handing over the gifts.  Smiling and her eyes tearing, she rushed to the door and blurted out, “These are from my dad? How did he do that?!”  She also looked surprised, perhaps not expecting anything at all from her father this year.  I gave her a brief explanation; she still looked a little confused, but she said, “Thank you.”

Lastly:  I got a phone call last week from a woman in South Philly who had somehow missed getting on the Angel Tree list this year for her twins.  She had my number from a previous year and asked us for help.  I was able to tell her right there that Circle of Hope had people who wanted to do this for her and her twins.  She held my hands when I came to the door later in the week and she said, “They [the twins] are gonna be so excited.  Thank you.”

I wanted to pass on these thank yous to all of you.  These families were genuinely touched by our offering to show a little love this Christmas despite the very difficult and real barrier of prison walls. Together we were able to help a parent show their care for their children, and show our care as a church for the caregivers of these children.  All of this helps God to show his love for everyone.

Forty-five children in our region received Christmas presents that their incarcerated parents asked us to purchase and wrap on their behalf. Thanks again to all of you who purchased and wrapped gifts, and thanks if what you did was to give to the common fund this year which partially goes to make compassionate things like this happen.  I hope you also had a touch of joy this Christmas.

Art Bucher for the Prison Connections Team

On Sunday, December 11^th, we held our first middle school family brunch with our Broad and Washington middle school families.  Three families and a couple others gathered in Germantown at the Getz home to eat a delicious meal, read the Christmas story, sing some Christmas carols (and everyone had their own instruments: talk about making a joyful noise!), and play Christmas charades.  A great time was had by all, including both the kids and adults!

We hope to make this a monthly happening and would like to invite other families with middle school kids to join us from across the network.  We are starting this because we want to support our middle school kids and their families as well as connect them with each other.  We are excited to grow together!  Our next middle school family brunch will be on Sunday, January 8^th at 11:00 a.m. in South Philly.  Please contact me if you would be interested in coming out at nichole.b.jackson@gmail.com.  We’d love for you to join us!!

The first Saturday morning of each month cell leaders, apprentices, and anyone from out network who is interested gather for leadership training.  This past Saturday, we gathered at Marlton and Crescent (MC) for a training on the use of technology.  We were asking ourselves, “How do we communicate in a way that’s helpful and relevant?” while also recognizing that technology is good if used as a tool, but if we become slaves to technology, this is a problem.  We live in a world that allows us to connect to each other in more ways than was ever possible.  We have e-mails, social networks, blogs, and the list goes on and on.  We were asking ourselves how we could use these things with out letting them take over our lives.

The discussion was great, and Nate and Jonny shared a couple of ways that we can communicate better with each other, including knowing about our own technology and using it well, and taking control of our own e-mail inbox.  It was pretty helpful, as I know I get very overwhelmed by all of the information that is thrown at me!

The monthly leadership trainings are open to everyone, and we invite you to join us next month on January 7^th at 9am at our 19G’s meeting space.  Hope to see you there!

Last Saturday almost 70 of us gathered at our Marlton and Crescent (MC) meeting space at 11:30 a.m. to go over our 2012 Map and Budget Proposal.  This tentative map is a result of the discernment process that our community has been in for the last several months with the Spirit’s guidance.  You can click on the link below to access the map.

2012 Map Proposal: [link]

During this meeting, we talked about our goals and objectives for 2012 to further discern if this is where the Holy Spirit is leading us in the next year.  Items were discussed, challenged, and affirmed them, and we also came up with some new ways that we could further these goals that were not listed.  This map will be finalized and presented at the Council Meeting on January 7^th at our 19G meeting space.  Join us for the meeting.

We are in a very exciting time at Circle of Hope.  I hope that as you take a look at where we are going, you will be just as excited and join us as we move with where the Spirit is taking us next!